Why do American houses have such long numbers?

the numbers are related to the blocks on the street.

It is common to have 4 digits on most streets, although some have 5, and a few have less than 4.

It is illegal in my city for a house to have only 1 number, and there are no new houses with less than 4 digits.

This has more to do with emergency response to an address, so from the city center the numbers become larger the farther you go in any direction.

You are misunderstanding. Polls do reflect the America people when Hussein's numbers were in the 70's. Just go back in YA past questions and look at all the boosting done. Even though they were no higher than ANY former President in their 1st 100 days, they were still staggering, facts didn't matter. They only became irreverent when people began noticing the grazing unicorns disappearing, and ice cream castles melting. Sort of like when the numbers show the economy is tanking again, forecloses up, retail sales down, unemployment continuing to skyrocket, all of sudden the liberals switch into Rush/Bush/Palin rant mode

My house is 533 S. 17th St. In my town that means that I live 5 blocks south of Main St. If you look at the second digit that means that I live in the third house in my block. The last digit is odd so that means my house faces west (evens face east). There are no other houses on my block that are between 530 and 539. So in my town most of the numbers are not even used.